The Leadership Equation

Leadership development traditionally focuses on adding: more skills, more knowledge, more techniques.

Yet what if the most impactful approach isn't about adding, but removing?

Performance = Potential - Interference

This simple equation challenges conventional thinking about leadership development. Most programmes assume leaders need more: more frameworks, more tools, more strategies.

Yet in twenty years of coaching senior executives, I've observed that breakthrough performance rarely comes from adding complexity.

Instead, it emerges when leaders identify and reduce the interference that prevents their natural potential from flowing freely.

What Is Interference?

Interference isn't weakness or failure—it's the accumulation of patterns, beliefs, and behaviours that once served us but now limit our effectiveness.

Common forms include:

• Internal narratives that question our capabilities despite evidence to the contrary
• Perfectionist tendencies that create paralysis rather than progress
• People-pleasing patterns that dilute authentic leadership presence
• Overthinking loops that delay decisive action

The Subtraction Approach

When we focus on removing what gets in the way rather than adding more complexity, several things happen:

Clarity emerges naturally. Without the noise of competing priorities and second-guessing, leaders can see situations more clearly and respond more authentically.

Decision-making accelerates. Less internal debate means faster, more confident choices that align with core values and strategic objectives.

Presence increases. When leaders aren't managing internal interference, more of their attention becomes available for genuine connection and situational awareness.

Beyond the Individual

The Leadership Equation applies beyond individual development. Teams, organisations, and even entire cultures can benefit from identifying and reducing systemic interference—outdated processes, conflicting values, or communication patterns that drain energy without adding value.

The question becomes: What would be possible if we spent as much energy removing obstacles as we do trying to push through them?

Practical Application

Start with honest observation. What patterns do you notice when you're performing at your best? What's different about those moments compared to when you feel stuck or frustrated?

Often, the interference is so familiar we don't recognise it as interference. It feels like "just how things are" or "the way I am."

Yet with gentle attention, most patterns reveal themselves to be choices we can make differently.

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This perspective emerges from ongoing conversations with leaders who've discovered that their greatest breakthroughs came not from learning something new, but from letting go of something that was no longer serving them.